The Big 12 Conference has announced its Scholar-Athlete of the Year recipients for the 2013 fall sport season. The following student-athletes have been selected as the award-winners for their respective sports based on a vote of each sport’s head coaching group. Coaches are not permitted to vote for their own student-athletes.

2013 Big 12 Men’s Cross Country Scholar-Athletes of the Year:

Reid Buchanan, Kansas, Jr., Manhattan, Kan./Manhattan & Austin Roth, Texas, Sr., Dallas, Texas/Lake HighlandsBuchanan sports a 3.47 grade point average in electrical engineering at Kansas. The junior is a two-time Academic All-Big 12 First Team member and competed for the Jayhawks in the 2013 NCAA Cross Country Championships after earning a 12th-place finish at the Midwest Regionals.

Roth is a seven-time member of the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll and currently holds a 3.63 GPA while majoring in finance at Texas. The Longhorns finished 14th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships this past fall and earned a third-place finish at the 2013 Big 12 Cross Country Championships.

Hall, a three-time Academic All-Big 12 First Team member, maintains a 3.30 grade point average studying government and is also a two-time cross country All-America recipient and the winner of the 2013 Big 12 Cross Country Championship individual crown. Martinelli has been named to the Academic All-Big 12 First Team for the past two years and currently holds a 3.72 GPA in exercise physiology. She finished eighth at this year’s Big 12 Cross Country Championships and helped WVU to a 24th-place finish at the NCAA Championships.

Ikard is the recipient of the Capital One Academic All-America of the Year award for footall and a member of the 2013 Academic All-America Team as well as the recipient of the 2013 Lee Roy Selmon Spirit Award. The two-time All-Big 12 honoree is a semifinalist for the Wuerffel Trophy and a finalist for the Senior CLASS Award, both of which honor individuals for their performances on and off the field. Ikard is the first OU football student-athlete in program history to be named Academic All-America of the Year and is the first to be named a three-time Academic All-American. The Oklahoma City native was already named a 2013 National Football Foundation Scholar Athlete Award winner and will receive an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship. In addition, he is a finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy as the top scholar-athlete in the nation. Ikard graduated with a perfect 4.0 GPA last May with bachelor’s degree in multidisciplinary studies with a biological sciences theme and is currently pursuing a second undergraduate degree from OU.

The 2013 Capital One Academic All-America of the Year recipient for women’s soccer, Silva holds a 3.97 grade point average in WVU’s sport management graduate program. Silva also collected 2013 National Soccer Coaches Association of America Women’s Scholar All-America First Team honors. Named to the NSCAA/Continental Tire All-America Second Team, she was one of 15 semifinalists for the 2013 M.A.C. Hermann Trophy. A unanimous selection as the Big 12 Conference Offensive Player of the Year, she scored a spot on the all-conference first team and led the Big 12 in goals (15), assists (13) and points (43). Silva is also a two-time Academic All-Big 12 first team honoree and earned the 2013 Dr. Gerald Lage award, the Big 12’s highest academic honor.

A three-time Academic All-Big 12 honoree, McLaurin maintains a 3.73 grade point average and is majoring in health and exercise science. The senior Sooner also competed in all of Oklahoma’s matches last fall, leading the Big 12 in hitting percentage and collecting All-Big 12 First Team honors for the third time in her career. McLaurin was also named a 2013 Capital One Academic All-America first team honoree - one of six student-athletes selected nationally on the first team.

The Big 12 Conference established the Big 12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year Awards in 2012-13 to recognize its outstanding student-athletes.

A Scholar-Athlete of the Year will be named in each of the Conference’s sponsored sports.

Scholar-Athlete of the Year nomination criteria includes:

•must be a junior or senior (athletic and academic standing)

•cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or higher

•participation in at least 60% of the team’s scheduled contests

•minimum of one year in residence at the institution

Each Big 12 institution will nominate one individual per sport, and the winners will be selected by a vote of the league’s head coaches for each sport.